The rookie scoring race this year saw the three Calder Trophy finalists all finish within a single point of each other. Gabriel Landeskog of the Colorado Avalanche and the Edmonton Oilers’ Ryan Nugent-Hopkins both recorded 52 points, while New Jersey Devil Adam Henrique scored 51. The only other player even close to those three was Philadelphia Flyers rookie Matt Read, with 47.

Yet another look shows that the gap between those four and a player like Carl Hagelin or Sean Couturier has been exaggerated by circumstance and opportunity.

The simplest measure of opportunity is games played, and when we look at the 14 rookie forwards with more than 20 points on the scale of points-per-game, we see a shift in the rankings. Here they are, with the “PTS/82” column representing their point-per-game pace multiplied over an 82-game schedule.

Player

GP

G

A

PTS

PTS/82

Ryan Nugent-Hopkins

62

18

34

52

69

Adam Henrique

74

16

35

51

57

Gabriel Landeskog

82

22

30

52

52

Andrew Shaw

37

12

11

23

51

Matt Read

79

24

23

47

49

Carl Hagelin

64

14

24

38

49

Craig Smith

72

14

22

36

41

Cody Hodgson

83

19

22

41

41

Colin Greening

82

17

20

37

37

Luke Adam

52

10

10

20

32

Marcus Kruger

71

9

17

26

30

Sean Couturier

77

13

14

27

29

Nick Johnson

77

8

18

26

28

Ryan Johansen

67

9

12

21

26

We see a commanding lead emerge for Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, while players like Andrew Shaw and Carl Hagelin are in the same range.

Of, course, there are other forms of opportunity, and it’s interesting to note where a player generated their offense. This is particularly true in the case of Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, who was far and away the leader in terms of points-per-game. Here is our list again, but this time ranked by offense produced at even-strength or while shorthanded:

Player

EVPTS

PPPTS

SHPTS

Non-PP PTS

Adam Henrique

36

8

7

43

Gabriel Landeskog

38

12

2

40

Carl Hagelin

36

0

2

38

Matt Read

33

11

3

36

Ryan Nugent-Hopkins

29

23

0

29

Colin Greening

29

8

0

29

Cody Hodgson

27

14

0

27

Sean Couturier

24

1

2

26

Nick Johnson

25

1

0

25

Craig Smith

23

13

0

23

Marcus Kruger

23

3

0

23

Andrew Shaw

19

4

0

19

Luke Adam

17

3

0

17

Ryan Johansen

17

4

0

17

Once again, Hagelin is the player that really stands out from the pack, given that he’s rarely mentioned in the same Calder discussion as the four players grouped around him. His 36 even-strength points is an impressive mark for a rookie .

Also decidedly impressive is Adam Henrique, who picked up more points in short-handed situations than much of the field managed on the power play. All of the players with a significant penalty-killing role – Henrique, Landeskog, Hagelin, Read and Couturier (who looks much closer to Ryan Nugent-Hopkins in this light than he does in terms of overall points) fare well here.

Of course, the most vital measure is scoring relative to ice-time. The following chart shows 5-on-5 and 5-on-4 PTS/60 (courtesy of behindthenet.ca), as well as each player’s 5-on-5 scoring rate extrapolated over Gabriel Landeskog’s 5-on-5 ice-time. (Note: omitted in the latter calculation are 5-on-4 and 4-on-4 numbers. The first is omitted since not all players got power play time, the other because it comprises a relatively small percentage overall of each player’s scoring.)

Player

5v5PTS/60

5v4PTS/60

Landeskog TOI

Carl Hagelin

2.40

---

48

Andrew Shaw

2.24

4.06

45

Matt Read

2.15

3.46

43

Ryan Nugent-Hopkins

1.98

7.30

40

Luke Adam

1.84

2.12

37

Adam Henrique

1.81

3.96

36

Sean Couturier

1.81

---

36

Gabriel Landeskog

1.74

4.11

35

Cody Hodgson

1.68

5.62

34

Craig Smith

1.64

5.11

33

Marcus Kruger

1.58

1.75

32

Colin Greening

1.57

3.46

32

Ryan Johansen

1.39

2.15

28

Nick Johnson

1.35

---

27

Ranking the chart this way is somewhat problematic, as I’ll explain when I go through the individual players.

Carl Hagelin’s rookie year has been tremendous, and he really hasn’t received fair credit for it. At 5-on-5, he’s easily the best of these players in terms of generating offense this year. His overall numbers were hurt by an early-season stint in the minors, a lack of power play time, and playing on a deep team, but he had a quality season and the Rangers have a gem there.

Andrew Shaw’s numbers look a little too good to be true, and they probably are. He split 2011-12 evenly between the AHL and NHL, and produced identical offensive numbers in each league. He’s a useful player in a lot of ways, including as a physical presence, but given his junior and AHL numbers I’m a little skeptical that he can keep up the pace he showed in half an NHL season this year.

Matt Read is a late-blooming forward who lacks the same upside as many of the other players on this list, but even if he never takes a step forward what he is now is nothing to be remotely ashamed of.

Ryan Nugent-Hopkins is unfairly penalized by this list, because he’s the guy with the highest level of power play ability. His offensive numbers at even-strength – even with the sheltering he received for much of the year – are excellent for an 18-year old, but his power play ability is what makes him such a spectacular player. There are more complete players on this list (not a surprise given age), but there’s no better offensive magician than the Oilers rookie.

Luke Adam doesn’t really belong where he is on this list. It was a bizarre season for the Sabres forward. In his first 11 games he scored four times and recorded 11 points overall, then the scoring became erratic over the next ~20 games, and he closed out his NHL season with a 20-game pointless streak. He went down to Rochester in February, where he put up miserable numbers to polish off 2011-12.

Adam Henrique and Sean Couturier actually had relatively similar seasons, save that New Jersey opted to use Henrique more in all areas of the game. Henrique had a brilliant year, but Couturier’s the really interesting player because his usage (the worst zone-start of any Flyers’ forward) was so severe and his ice-time rather limited. Based on what he did with his ice-time, he’s really in the same group as more heralded draft-mates Nugent-Hopkins and Landeskog.

There’s no question that Gabriel Landeskog delivered a superb rookie season, and he’s probably the favourite for the Calder. There’s also no question that he had an opportunity in Colorado that few other players received. His offensive game out of the gate is better than it was expected to be, but it also got help in the form of ice-time.

Cody Hodgson’s offense declined once he was separated from the Vancouver power play; it’s going to be interesting to see how he fares in Buffalo next season.

Of the remaining players, the one really worth highlighting is Ryan Johansen, who had a decidedly subpar rookie season in Columbus. Given the disaster that was the 2011-12 Blue Jackets, that’s not necessarily all his fault, but he was expected to deliver a lot more in the show than he eventually did as a rookie. The expectations of the other players in his range were much more modest; Johansen was supposed to be a difference maker out of the gate.

Jonathan Willis is a freelance writer.
He currently works for Oilers Nation, Sportsnet and Bleacher Report.
He's co-written three books and worked for myriad websites, including the Edmonton Journal, Grantland, ESPN, The Score, and Hockey Prospectus. He was previously the founder and managing editor of Copper & Blue.

That somewhat alleviates my Calder ballot (1st Henrique, 2nd RNH, 3rd Hagelin)...but not completely. I was drinking, you see...and the last image I had was a blonde Swede but I couldn't remember which one...

Love this stuff, can't get enough of this quantitative analysis. It's pathetic watching Ward, PJ Stock, McKenzie and other 'analysts' on TV trying to mumble their way through player evaluations. All I can think is "how nice to hear your 'opinion' I have one to, doesn't make either of us right".

They never take into account player usage, quality of linemates, zone starts etc. And we all know this date has a larger effect on a players game than simply 'he looks lost', or 'he's struggling out there'.